by Rob Kendt
When I spoke to theatre architect John Sergio Fisher a few weeks
ago about his design for the new state-of-the-art 99-Seater in Pasadena, the
Boston Court, he mentioned another new project he's working on: a new 400-seat
Washington Blvd. Performing Arts Center, on Washington near La Brea, on the
site of the old Ebony Showcase Theatre, an L.A. theatre mainstay of decades
past, run by the late Nick Stewart. I recalled that I'd heard Ernest Dillahy of
L.A. Cultural Affairs and South Central entrepreneur James Burke talking about
this project years ago, at a colloquy on the future of black theatre in L.A. I
couldn't reach Dillahy by press time, but I did find the Ebony Showcase onlineÑand
there begins a tale I haven't had the time or resources to pursue. Suffice to
say the website I found represents a nonprofit called Ebony Showcase Theatre,
which is painfully separate from the city's new Fisher-designed theatre complex
and the city's efforts. It's run by Nick Stewart's daughter, Valerie Stewart,
who claims that the city construction effort, championed by 10th District
Councilman Nate Holden, shoved her organization aside by alleging that the old
theatre building was "tilted" and that it caved in. Cultural Affairs
will run the new theatre. Meanwhile, Valerie Stewart soldiers on with her
nonprofit, and she said she has lent her time to other theatre-saving crusades,
such as the fight to save Pasadena's Raymond Theatre from demolition. Stay tuned
for more on the Ebony story, if we can sort it all out.
¥ Last year I interviewed Tim Robbins in a second-floor office at
the Actors' Gang, just before Mephisto and Seagull opened, and
while rumors of the war over the Gang's leadership were still fresh in the air.
It was an amicable discussion; I did ask about the fate of Tracy Young, the
Gang's preeminent director/writer, who was mum at the time about her future
with the company. Robbins said it was up to her. (Young's Dreamplay, which
workshopped at the Gang in 2000, is now running in another workshop at a
private home in Studio City.) I mentioned the watershed production in which
Young had worked back in 1998, along with Cornerstone's Bill Rauch: Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella. As we were
sitting in a theatre building, the pronunciation of that middle titleÑthe
infamous "Scottish play"Ñnecessitated a ritual purging, my first.
Robbins trotted me down the stairs and made me spin around three times in the
front doorway. Salt was thrown and spit was spit, as I recall.
That was Sept. 10. Less than 24 hours later, there were much
bigger conflicts to contemplate than the Gang war, and Robbins was en route via
car to his family in New York. Seagull and Mephisto were
postponed a week or so. I later heard an anecdote that Robbins had been seen
around downtown Manhattan buying hibachis for World Trade Center clean-up crews
so they could have food prepared while they worked.
Nine months later, the Gang soldiers on, despite the defection of
Young and Chris Wells, who's formed a company with her to produce Dreamplay. The death
penalty-themed docu-theatre piece The Exonerated runs through
June 30 on the mainstage, while a silly Style-based romp called Max's House
of Pies runs late nights at the adjacent El Centro space; the former
features the theatricalized tales of former Death Row inmates who were
exonerated by DNA evidence, the latter is an improvised murder mystery that
allows audience members to toss pies at the cast, which includes Gang veterans
Ned Bellamy, Brent Hinkley, and Lee Arenberg, as well as newcomers Lolly Ward
and Kirk Pynchon. Said Ward last week: "I got creamed on Saturday. I could
see the audience aiming for me."
Pies will not be distributed for The Guys, the
9/11-themed play by Anne Nelson that will have its premiere next month starring
Robbins and Helen Hunt. It will be Robbins' first appearance at the theatre he
built in Hollywood in 1994. It's rumored that a late-night revival of Ubu
the King, a seminal show from the Gang's early years Robbins directed and
starred in, is in the works.
¥ Gang affiliates Hinkley, Kate Mulligan, and Steve Porter, along
with powerhouse actors Larry Pressman and Jeff Sugarman, recently returned from
a benefit production of O'Neill's Sea Plays in the barn
at the Tao House in Danville, CA, where O'Neill lived and wrote his late, great
works. Directed by Mike Uppendahl for the long-dormant Namaste Theatre
CompanyÑwhich years ago did a popular Illusion at the Gang's
El Centro spaceÑthe benefit production had sound design by John Zalewski, who
told me that real wind blowing through the barn sometimes drowned out his
recorded wind. That's just cool.
¥ Multitalented Ken Roht will direct Mister Julie, a
gender-bent Strindberg adaptation by Erik Patterson at the Evidence Room. Roht
said he's still looking for someone to play Jean: He needs "a big guy,
either a great actor or a good actor/force of nature".É Speaking of the
Evidence Room, this weekend is the final Strip till a
possible Christmas show. It's been a five-month trip, all right.É The Guys isn't the
only 9/11-inspired play with celebrities in the cast going up soon: This week,
13-year-old New Yorker David Watson's play The Widows will play at
the Second Stage as part of the Blank Theatre Company's Young Playwrights
Festival. Kellie Martin stars in that one. Other performers in various short
plays include Mark Damon Espinoza and Bruce Vilanch (but will he stay on
script?).